Terry Gilliam

(b. 22 November 1940, USA)

Of course, everyone remembers Terry Gilliam from the various successful movies he directed ('12 Monkeys', 'Brazil'), or the goofy animations he did for Monty Python's Flying Circus. However, before he moved to England and became a member of the legendary Monty Python team, Gilliam drew cartoons and comics throughout the early and mid-1960s. His first printed work appeared in Fang, a college's humor magazine of which he became an editor later on. He then became an associate editor of HELP! magazine, for which he also drew cartoons. In 1964/1965, his future Python colleague John Cleese made a guest appearance in HELP! in a photo-feature. When he first came to Europe, Gilliam provided two short stories to the French magazine Pilote. Gilliam also provided some comics to Petersen Publishing's magazines CARtoons and SURFtoons, for which Alex Toth also contributed work. In CARtoons Gilliam drew the comic 'My son Arnold, the Car', which already showed the absurdism and silliness he would later further develop in the Monty Python series.